Are your payroll systems ready for ASPP?

From April the rules regarding paternity leave and pay are changing. Are you ready?

HMRC are currently adapting their paternity pay and leave allowances to give new parents greater flexibility and equality for whom in the family will stay at home with the new family addition. Additional statutory paternity pay (ASPP) and additional statutory paternity leave (ASPL) are the new names for these new systems that will be added where the baby is due or due to be adopted on or after 3rd April 2011. From that date, ASPP will augment Ordinary Statutory Paternity Pay which is unchanged by this change to Parental Leave rules.

The main crux of the change is this. Under ASPP, at 20 weeks from the birth of the child, mothers can hand the remainder of their maternity pay period to the ‘father’ of the child, or the joint adoptive parent. The mother or primary adopter must still take at least two weeks leave following the birth of their child. Additional Paternity Leave can then be taken at any point from 20 weeks after the birth or adoption of the child, to one year after the birth or placement for adoption of the child so long as the mother or primary adopter ceases to receive SMP or SAP or Maternity Allowance in their own right and return to work

The parent needs to certify they are the father, spouse, or adoptive parent. To use the leave they must handle parental duties, they cannot for instance, simply take the leave and then hand the child to their mother in-law or other. This condition forms part of the certification process. This is a potential previous loop hole which has in previous cases been exploited. There is an urban legend of an employee who once claimed four periods of paternity leave within one year, where he had fathered children by four separate mothers! Under the rules governing ASPP, questions would need to be asked over the amount of parental care he could give while undertaking his parental responsibilities!

Of course new regulations can cause headaches for old payroll systems. If you have not yet looked at Safe EMS for your permanent staffing HR and payroll needs, or Safe Tempest for the payroll of your contractors and temporary workers, then perhaps now is the time to do so. Our software systems and consultancy services can help you handle this change, and drastically reduce the paperwork that may come with them. To find out more either contact your Safe account manager to find out more, or visit www.safe-ems.co.uk and www.safe-tempestsuite.co.uk and use the ‘enquire online’ link.

ENDS

Editors notes: About Safe Computing - Safe Computing is a leading supplier of HR and

payroll, accountancy and credit control software and bureau services. It is also the

market leader in the recruitment staffing sector with its specialised Tempest payroll and

billing, scanning and front office applications. Safe Computing was founded in 1975, has

several UK offices, and the head office is based in Leicester. For all media enquiries